


Against the Sun

by pocketTherapist



Category: Naruto
Genre: Author is Truly Screwed Up, Fix-It of Sorts, Other, Past Rape/Non-con, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Indulgent, Self-Insert, Swearing, You Have Been Warned, a lot of it, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 18:22:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15954941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pocketTherapist/pseuds/pocketTherapist
Summary: Girl dies. Girl wakes up.Girl is in Narutoverse.Send help.





	1. Chapter 1

Ookami Tsukiko is two years old and her caregiver is  _ terrified _ of her. She’s always been a worryingly quiet child, staring off into space and only ever focusing once in a while, but now that she’s getting more autonomous, she’s fully present more and more often, and the quiet intensity in her gaze makes her civilian matron shiver and look away more often than not. The rest of the orphanage workers feel the same, even if none of them have ever discussed it, a silent agreement to  _ leave it alone _ , and they all turn blind eyes to the…weirdness she tends to display. When they find her at one and a half, propping herself against a wall to support her baby’s torso while she reads a scroll she must have gotten from the matron’s desk. When they walk past her running through stretches and exercises with a discipline no almost-toddler should have. When they find her in a corner somewhere, meditating calmly at three in the morning instead of sleeping like every other child, even the demon brat. When she watches them with too-sharp, too-slanted eyes, predatory and aged, impossible to startle.

They’ve never had to use baby talk to communicate with her, and although she’s never spoken that any of them can hear they have no doubt that she’s perfectly capable of it if she so desired. As soon as she’d been able to, she’d begun training her general and fine motor skills, disciplined and calculated. The movements she makes are never anything but deliberate. They’ve never managed to catch her unawares. One of the nurses quits within a week when Tsukiko takes sudden interest in her. They can’t figure out why, only that the nurse had been scolding the demon brat when the wolf girl’s eyes locked on her with a terrifyingly intense focus. None of them have ever felt her use chakra, even the uncontrolled little slips that all chakra-gifted children get when emotional or experimenting. They’d think she was completely untalented, except.

Except.

This child is very clearly a shinobi, even at such a young age. Her mind is like nothing they have seen before, and the closest thing they can compare it to is the occasional encounter they have with older shinobi, the veterans from the war, with the sharp-dark eyes and the kunai ever-ready. The nurses and the matron whisper about youkai, changelings, monsters. She laughs aloud when she overhears them—hearing  _ toosharp _ for even a wolfchild—and it’s the first time they’ve ever heard her make any noise. One of the nurses shrieks aloud and then stops, half-embarrassed, half-nervous. The entire room freezes. She smiles sweetly up at them, the expression perfectly childlike and utterly  _ wrong _ on that old little face, and murmurs,

“Not a changeling. Think…reincarnation.” Tsukiko tips her head to the side and walks out the door, leaving a small gathering of stunned caregivers behind her.

She is three years old. The matron never sees her again. She never wants to. Her sleep is haunted enough already.

  
  


Ookami Tsukiko is four years old and the library won’t allow her access to any texts beyond literal baby books. She resists the urge to pout and takes herself off to watch the training grounds, instead. It takes almost three weeks of watching the jounin, but she’s finally refreshed herself on the hand signs she’d decided were her next step in gathering strength. She can feel chakra this time around, but has no idea how that corresponds to the hand signs, so she just pushes it toward her hands and mimics what she’s felt as she forms the seals, nips the inside of her wrist, and slams her palms against the ground.

“Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”

Turns out, that’s not how you’re supposed to reverse summon yourself, but Tsukiko is at least in the summoning realm now. She hadn’t given it much thought before trying, but she had always assumed that the realm was located somewhere on…well, she thinks the shinobi world is at least nominally on Earth, since it appears to have all the same rules, plus chakra. Now, she suspects that the “summoning realm” is more of an entirely different plane, layered unusually closely to this one on a mirrored version of Earth that developed in tandem with the shinobi’s Earth.

She doesn’t get a chance to ask, because as soon as she peels herself off of the ground where she’d fallen she’s being confronted by an enormous snow leopard. The massive cat sniffs at her distastefully and then recoils in horror.

“What  _ are _ you?”

“Part dog.” The response slips from her before she can master the thought, and god  _ dammit _ she needs to work on controlling her innate snark reflex.

“No! …well, yes, you are from the wolf clan, but you are more…unbalanced than you should be. Something is very wrong with you.”

Tsukiko returns dryly,

“My thanks, but I am well aware of my condition. I suspect the imbalance stems from retaining the memories from my previous reincarnation.”

Without thought, her thumb traces a line on the underside of her jaw, the motion entirely too unconscious and repetitive to be anything less than long habit.

The snow leopard peers more closely at her tiny form, gauging her sincerity.

“That would certainly do it. And you smell like truth. How unusual. Well, then, little summoner, you would be a catch for any of the clans, but I suspect that the wolves will not stand to let any other snatch you up. Come, I will show you the way.”

 

Ookami Tsukiko is four years old when she arrives at the Howling Tundra, led by a dazed-looking snow leopard. She stands quietly as the great cat talks quietly with the border patrol on the edge of the wolves’ territory. He explains that he found her when she'd reverse summoned herself, and since she was clearly an Ookami, he'd brought her here directly. Nashoba thanked him, and he turned to leave, but hesitated, looking unsettled.  

“She is… off balance, somehow. Her soul is deeply unbalanced. I have seen no one so disturbed in many years. I hope she benefits from spending time with the Pack.”

  
  


Ookami Tsukiko has lived with her wolves for two years, and Nashoba can sense her growing restlessness. For all the good her time here has done her, she needs to go back. It has been almost six years since the Kyuubi was released on Konoha and if she leaves things as they are much longer she cannot be sure of success in preventing the Massacre. The Pack knows, now, of her retained memories from her life before, and the knowledge that comes with it. She’s not sure, even now, if Danzo’s greed can be subverted or if there’s too much in motion for a single, untrained shinobi to accomplish. She will try—and Nash has no doubt that she could shake the very foundations of Konoha if she so wished—but she is but one person, even with the heightened prescience granted her by her past life, and one person is easily ignored or silenced.

Nashoba is coming with her. Tsukiko won't be able to go as unnoticed as she has been up to this point, but the benefits of having a massive, battle-scarred grey wolf with her massively outweigh the potential drawbacks. The calm, wise wolf makes a good foil to Kiko’s more wild moments, grounding her when needed and providing a balanced outlook. For all her theoretical experience, Tsukiko is new to waging guerrilla war against a large organization, and Nashoba provides necessary insight.

 

She’s kind of worried, though. She’s been with the support of the entire, enormous pack for two years now, and while she’s made great progress toward healing, the idea of pulling that support system out from under her makes her shudder. Even if she knows they’re only a summon away, there’s a difference between the constant of  _ pack _ and being alone. Tsukiko…really doesn’t want to go back to being alone. But she damn well has things to do, and her own feelings on the matter aren’t about to stop her from doing what needs to be done.

Not that she hasn’t been already laying groundwork. She’s got her Sage transformation coming as easily as breathing, and there isn’t a single summoning clan that doesn’t know her—or at least, know  _ of _ her. Apparently, her situation is unique enough to catch the attention of even the Great Sage clans. Manda himself had showed up to speak with her at one point, and with a feeling of complete detachment from reality Kiko had sat down for a long discussion on the practical aspects of reincarnation; his summoner was apparently quite interested in the whole process. Kiko can hardly keep herself from snickering at this, but her face remains smooth as she’s been training herself to do, and she steers the conversation to something she’s been thinking about for…quite a while, honestly.

  
  


Manda is well aware of his clan’s reputation. They’re sneaky, they’re slimy, viewed as treacherous and only interested in power. His summoner has endured much of the stigma associated with the snakes, as well, being from a clan that was long bonded with the Snake Sage summons. It does not grieve him, but sometimes, especially when he was trying to comfort a younger Orochimaru after a session of pointless bullying by children that did not understand and did not try to, he feels the stirrings of old pain, bitter and furious.

He has learned not to expect more from anyone.

This is why he is startled when, after a long discussion with the wolf child, she sits there calmly and begins expounding on her theory of personality types. She is a snake, she tells him proudly, cunning and ambitious and willing to do what needs to be done. There are also eagles, intelligent and sharp, and lions, bold and brave, and badgers, fierce and protective. Manda listens, half-dazed, as the girl smiles at him with sharp, sharp teeth and declares that she is going to change a few things with this theory.

Change a few things? If she is successful in propagating this theory, she may well change the view of the Snake clans forever. His mind leaps ahead, and oh, if she could bring some measure of acceptance to his summoner, he will never forget this favor. Orochimaru has been walking a lone path that grows ever darker for a very long time, and this could be the thing that brings a little sun into his cold path.

Manda lowers his head and asks her, very seriously, why she would do this. The wolf girl fixes him with a gaze as intense as any he’s ever seen and says solemnly that she is going to shake the shinobi world from its very foundations.

In that moment, he believes her.

“It is a shame, little wolf, that you were born one of them. The Snake clans would have been delighted to have you.”

It is a shame, indeed, but the wolf clans and the snake clans have been at odds for longer than even Manda with his long memory can remember. But this, at least, he can offer her.

“Should you ever need my help, little wolf, you need only ask. For as long as you are the lone wolf summoner, the Snake clan will not stand against you and yours.”

Tsukiko bows gravely to him, a bow of equals, and Manda cannot stop the flicker of amusement that his tongue expresses. And then she shocks him again for the third time in as many minutes.

“And should the Snake clan ever need my assistance, you need only ask. Tsukiko of the wolves is pleased to help her archetype.”

That’s…unheard of. If Manda were speaking to anyone else, he would be insulted at the implication, but this wolf child is possessed of power and ambition that awes him, a little, and he does not believe for a moment that she is being insincere. He dips his head back to hide his astonishment, and the meeting is over.

He needs to talk to the eagles, lions, and badgers. This…this is going to be  _ fun. _

  
  
  


Genma is working slowly through his katas, loosening his muscles and testing the shoulder he'd injured on his last mission, when he hears the distinctive pop of a summoning. He turns, senbon firmly between his teeth, only to see a tiny, ash-haired girl stumble out of the cloud of smoke, a wolf nearly as large as she is pressing against her side to support her. 

He blinks. There's no way the pair had been here a moment previously, but he's never even heard of anyone being able to travel to the summoning realm, much less make their way back. And this slip of a girl, her face and eyes sharp even through the child's softness, certainly shouldn't have been able to do it. She doesn't look like an Inuzuka, either, and his mind jumps to the last known wolf summoner in Konoha, a man who'd died before Genma had even gotten out of the academy. The White Fang certainly hadn't passed his contract on to his son, and even the  _ idea _ of ice-cold Kakashi fathering a child was ludicrous. That left an unknown wolf-child wandering around Konoha, though, now complete with wolf companion. 

All this flashes through his mind as he watches her steady herself against the disorientation of summoning, and he sees the exact moment she registers his presence, because her face goes absolutely blank even as her body slides into a deceptively relaxed slouch that reminds him of a Nara preparing to strike. He carefully wipes a smirk off of his face and saunters over to get a closer look. 

 

“Hey, kid, what’re you doing here?”

 

She gives him a flat  _ look _ that conveys exactly how impressed she is with his stupid question. 

 

“I was plotting the military takeover of Konoha with my secret army.”

 

Genma snorts. 

 

“Yeah, and I'm the Mizukage.”

 

She shrugs and gives him a long once-over. It's an assessing, piercing gaze that would look more appropriate on a trained shinobi, instead of a small child, and Genma forces down a flicker of unease. Then, to his surprise, she folds into a perfectly polite bow. 

 

“I am Ookami Tsukiko. It is a pleasure to meet you, shinobi-san.”

 

Genma squints at her for a moment. The Ookami clan is one of the many old clans that have dwindled over the years, even as new ones rise to take their place, but he remembers clearly enough the last few members, and the gold eyes and ash-dark hair are as distinctive markings as ever. She’s probably one of the Kyuubi brats, slipped through the cracks as the system scrambled to deal with the sudden influx of orphans. She’s certainly wary enough to be a street brat. It makes him wonder about the wolf, though. 

 

“Ookami, huh? Well, nice to meet you, brat. I'm Shiruani Genma, but you can just call me Genma.”

 

An eyebrow rises minutely, and the girl inclines her head. 

 

“It is a pleasure, Genma-san.”

 

Genma very nearly rolls his eyes.

 

“So, you want to tell me what you were actually doing here? Because it looks to me as if you just reverse-summoned yourself, regardless of whether or not that’s actually  _ possible _ .”

 

The girl blinks at him with utter innocence. 

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Genma-san. I was just taking Nash for a walk.”

 

Genma stares. 

 

“You definitely just popped out of a cloud of smoke from the middle of nowhere. That looks like a summoning to me.”

 

Kiko tilts her head at him. 

 

“That’s impossible. Are you feeling okay, Genma-san?”

 

This girl is stonewalling him  _ to his face  _ with perfect nonchalance, and doing it better than most  _ chuunin _ he knows. 

 

By kami, he’s officially impressed. 

 

“All right, all right. You ain’t gotta tell me what you were up to. But you should keep an eye out, kid. Not the sort of thing you might want to run around doing in front of all the shinobi.”

 

She quirks a wry smile, the pretense of innocence dropping off with nary a hint of its former presence. 

 

“Thank you, Genma-san. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

 

Yeah, he thought she’d already known that. He shrugs and turns away, back to his kata, waving a careless hand over his shoulder. 

 

“See you around, brat.”

  
  
  


They finally let her into the library, but she still only has access to the Academy student books. No matter. She grabs the entirety of the first row of the shelf and settles herself on the floor in the corner with the massive stack, Nash curling around her to keep watch while Kiko loses herself in her first love—learning.

The first stack is written at a level meant for six to ten year olds. Kiko reads at a postgraduate level. It takes her approximately fifteen minutes to consume one book. Three hours later, she goes back for the second row.

Two days later she knows everything the Academy could possibly try to teach her—at least theoretically. She’ll still need to put things in practice, but she’ll let the knowledge ruminate until she gets the chance to resume her workout routine. The tokujo at the counter gave up on gaping on the third day and has since simply watched her in vague amounts of disbelief as she devours several hundred books and scrolls. 

Kiko doesn’t really  _ need _ to, but she takes notes anyway, writing down all the E-rank jutsu (there are only three of them) listed as well as anything else she finds helpful. It’s the small tidbits that catch her attention, things most civilians would overlook and most clan children would already know by heart; those are the things she needs to know to truly make it and fit into this new world. Shinobi etiquette such as it is, clan allegiances (and she nearly makes a noise aloud when she sees in the register that the Hatake and Inuzuka were once both feudal clans to the Ookami;  _ how is she supposed to handle that? _ ), customs and councils and clan heads. 

She files all that knowledge away to go over again later, not daring to write any of it down to possibly let anyone know that these had been gaps in her knowledge. She is her own clan head, the last of a surviving clan. It’s not one of the noble clans, not really, but the Ookami had been one of the clans that showed up to support and defend the fledgling Konoha, and Hashirama had welcomed them and their vassal clans easily and warmly. Tsukiko is already planning to reach out to both her clans—her mindset is already long shifted; they are  _ hers _ , to take care of and protect and fight for. She doesn’t know if either of them are even aware of her existence. Hatake—by which she means Kakashi, since he, like her, is the last of his clan—probably has no idea. And she doubts the Inuzuka know, either, since no one she’s yet talked to has any idea who or what she is, even at the orphanage, and no one has seemed to keep an eye out for her, so she was probably one of the orphaned children who simply slipped through the cracks, their clan lost, in the wake of the Kyuubi attack. Yeah, she’s a little older than that, but her mother could have been a traveler trying to return to Konoha to have her child in her “den.” Or…

Kiko shakes herself. It doesn’t matter, not really. Her lineage is what it is and how she ended up where she did has no effect on where she’s going to be. She buries her hand in Nash’s rough mane. She has all the pack she needs now, anyway. She can last a little longer on her own. Right now, though…she glances down at the hand signs, the proper chakra movements, and the E-ranks she wrote down. She needs to go practice these until she can do them by heart, unconscious, without the hand signs. The higher-ranked jutsu are all well and good, but it’s the little advantages that cost almost nothing that are going to save her when it comes down to true battle. With that in mind, she bows to the tokujo, who just stares some more, and heads out to find a training field where she can practice unnoticed.

 

The problem with trying to perfect a jutsu until it’s instinctive is that her muscle memory can’t be trained by her mind alone.Tsukiko grows quickly frustrated with Kawarimi—for whatever reason, every time her chakra reaches out to grab something, it just tries to change to match the signature of whatever it’s touching instead. Which, yeah, that’s useful as hell for blending in, but she actually needs to be able to get and switch with it, instead of trying to  _ become _ it. For the first time, her malleable signature becomes a detriment instead of an asset. She has to take a few hours to sit down and meditate, to really find her  _ own _ signature, before she can do anything with it. Sage mode would work, too, but she refuses to have to go into Sage mode just to do a  _ fucking _ replacement jutsu. Literal six-year-olds can do this; she absolutely will not fail.

 

…It’s a good thing she has three weeks before Academy starts.


	2. Chapter 2

Tsukiko is going to quit the Academy. There is no way she’s going to sit here for the next six years and do nothing while her teachers blather on for days trying to teach something that Kiko had known by heart in fifteen minutes. She…really needs to find a way to get some extracurricular studying in; until she can learn the Kage Bunshin, though, there’s no way she’ll be able to capitalize on these hours. Maybe she can convince the library to allow her to have access to the genin section, so she can do that in class instead of practicing drawing, or meditating. Her reserves are already  _ massive _ for an Academy student, easily surpassing that of the Uchihas in her class. She’s still only got about a third of Uzumaki’s natural reserves, but that’s an immensely comfortable drawing pool in the first place, and each day she spends these hours widening her pool a little more. By the end of the year, she thinks, she’ll have roughly half of what Naruto does, and if this rate of growth continues she should be nearly on par with him by the time they graduate. She hadn’t thought she’d be able to get anywhere near that amount of chakra, and she’s not quite sure what she’s going to do with it all. But for now, Kiko practices folding it down, compressing it and concealing it from any sensors around. Her reserves are naturally unbalanced, but as she pushes herself, her yang reserves naturally expand more quickly than her yin reserves, trying to make up the imbalance.

Tsukiko is going to be, quite simply, a  _ monster _ , and this gives her a fierce sort of joy. She wants to be absolutely untouchable, and at this rate it’s going to happen within the next twenty years. Unfortunately, she has things to do in the next two, instead, and those are the ones she’s least likely to survive.

She’s on break on her second day when the idea of seals occurs to her, and she very nearly splits her skull open on the tree she’s climbing in absolute frustration at herself. How could she have forgotten? Fuuinjutsu comprised some of the most powerful techniques in the entire shinobi  _ world _ , and here she was still proceeding at her snail’s pace when she could be sprinting instead. She sits on the lowest branch and tries to get her growling under control; her lower secondary vocal chords are expressing their displeasure quite vocally. Kiko takes a deep, rumbling breath and lets it out slowly, bringing herself back to calmness as she does so. The surrounding nature chakra helps, pressing against her reserves with a quiet hum of offering. She sways with it, not mixing it with her own as needed for Sage mode but matching her wavelength to it to blend in. She always finds this exercise particularly calming—like becoming one with nature, as cheesy as it sounds to her cynic’s mind.

 

By the time she hops down, she’s much clearer and  _ very _ determined. She knows little of fuuinjutsu—the Academy materials only mentioned it in passing for things like exploding tags—but she can divine enough just from her prior knowledge to get started. Kiko’s headed back inside to find some paper and maybe something sharp enough to cut herself with when her senses go off and she twists sideways to avoid a mudball that would have caught her in the back of the head. She finishes her twist to end facing the direction the projectile had come from and levels an unimpressed look at a purple-haired girl standing with a group of her cronies. Their giggling has stopped and they look pretty surprised, honestly. Kiko sighs. She has absolutely no desire to engage in petty, six-year-old antics, but she’s already annoyed and bullies have  _ always _ gotten on her nerves.

So she stands there instead of continuing on inside, watching them. Tsukiko knows her eyes are unsettling, slanted and gold and predatory as they are, and she uses it to her advantage as she watches them in total stillness. The moment is broken when the purple one tosses her head haughtily and turns away, clearly deciding to look for easier prey. Unfortunately for her, she glances over next to where tiny Sakura is sitting, watching the boys play. Kiko’s having none of that. Between one heartbeat and the next, she’s between the group and their intended victim, utterly relaxed, hands hanging at her side, head slightly tilted and lowered. Her vocal chords are sounding off again, though, letting loose a threatening snarl.

“What’s wrong? Decided you didn’t want to play with me anymore?”

Tsukiko’s voice is raspy—she hasn’t used it in a while, honestly—but it only adds to the unsettling effect. The ringleader steps back, nervous, and two of her cronies back away completely, leaving her with only one other girl behind her.

“N- no, we just…”

“What? I thought you might want to play catch. That was why you threw the ball to me, right?”

The girl glances quickly to the side, looking for escape routes, and Kiko’s snarl escalates into a full-throated growl that rips around the grounds. All motion freezes, but Kiko is focused solely on her chosen prey with the intensity of a stalking huntress. She leans slowly into the other girl’s space and gently,  _ gently _ places a hand on the joint of her neck and shoulder, tilting her head to whisper into her ear.

“These people are  _ mine.  _ Understood?”

The unspoken threat hangs in the air and the girl nods frantically as Kiko releases her. She stumbles backwards, babbling, and falls to the ground.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry I’m sorry I won’t mess with you again I promise please don’t hurt me.”

Kiko raises an eyebrow and jerks her chin in casual dismissal. She turns away from where the violet-head is scrambling back to her friends and surveys the damage. The entirety of her Academy class is staring at her, and her shoulders go back and her chin drops instinctively.

“You guys looking at something?”

She can’t quite control the threat display, and despite knowing they’re only six she’s having a hard time resettling herself. For all that she has other memories, Tsukiko is still six emotionally and neurochemically, and traumatized to boot. The situation looks like it’s going to escalate out of control for a moment more before a low whine breaks her out of it.

It’s Kiba, and Kiko…wasn’t expecting that. He’s dropped his head, hunching his shoulders and curling in on himself to be smaller than her, and he slinks up looking like he thinks she’s going to bite him, but he comes up anyway, whining deep in his throat, echoed by a higher puppy-whine from Akamaru, huddled into his shirt. It settles the alpha in her, soothes her, and she reaches out to rub the back of Kiba’s head gently, doing the same to Akamaru, the growl in her throat lowering to a rumble of acceptance and approval. That breaks the tension, settles her wolf, and she lifts her head again to survey—well, technically she just claimed them all as pack, declared herself the Alpha, and although most of them don’t understand a lick of it, it’s clear that they all at least realize that she’s placed herself at the top, in the unspoken hierarchy that children tend toward anyway. Sasuke is looking at her intently, sizing her up, and Shikamaru’s gaze flickers with intense interest for a moment before he lowers his head again, but the rest of the group seems to acknowledge her. As she makes eye contact with each one, they look down or away first, and again her wolf is pleased. Shino looks more casually dismissive than anything, and Ino looks like she can’t decide whether to be awed or angry, but they both submit without further struggle.

 

Naruto surprises her because he reacts similarly to Kiba. He curls into himself and drops his gaze, but unlike Kiba he looks more scared and confused than submissive. Kiko abruptly realizes that he probably has no idea what's going on, and why would he have canid instincts anyway, unless… the fox? Foxes are in the dog family too, aren't they. She wanders over to acknowledge him physically, as with Kiba, and ruthlessly represses her fury when he flinches when she reaches for him. She ignores the motion and ruffles his hair with real affection. 

 

The bell rings right before things can get really awkward, and she and Sasuke lead the rest of the class inside to finish the day. She can feel the calculating edge to his chakra and the glances he keeps throwing her and Kiba. She can guess the direction of his thoughts; Kiba had tried to establish himself as a “leader” right off, getting in several minor scuffles and yelling a bit, but now he's very clearly submitted to Tsukiko, something obvious even to those completely unfamiliar with canine body language. For this reason, she's utterly unsurprised when he confronts her immediately after class. 

“Fight me.”

Kiko tilts her head, considering, and then nods. 

“Not here, though. I know a place.”

She turns on her heel and walks off, not bothering to check to see if he's following. The little Uchiha is too proud to let such a challenge go. As she walks, she reviews what she knows of him. He's not withdrawn and sullen yet, but he's son of the clan head, and she knows he's pushed himself hard even at this age. She's not really possessed of any advanced techniques yet, but she's been training her strength, speed, and endurance since the moment doing so would no longer injure her growing body. She has a great deal of chakra, which won't particularly help her here except for static muscular enhancement, but that alone should be enough. Even if Sasuke knows the basics, he won't be able to keep up with her long. He might have his great fireball, at this point, but she can dodge well enough and her Kawarimi is second nature by now. She'll try to keep it to straight physical confrontation, but she'll bring psychological warfare into it if she needs to. Speaking of, she casts out her senses and represses a smile when she feels the calm, dark flow of Itachi’s chakra following them at a discrete distance. If she weren't what she is, she would never have realized. She doesn't think even most of the elite jounin would be able to sense him, concealed as he is. The problem with concealing your chakra instead of blending your signature, though, is that you leave a blank hole in the wider field of nature chakra that lets a sensor--or a Sage--feel your absence as a person-shaped gap. 

She stops in the middle of one of the empty training fields and turns to face Sasuke. 

“Rules?”

***

Sasuke blinks and then narrows his eyes, thinking. She's playing with him, even now. There's no tension in her form, and that speaks to the confidence that comes with absolute knowledge of victory. But what can he restrict that will be to his benefit? He knows he's good at shuriken and kunai throwing, so weapons are a good inclusion. The average Academy student wouldn't know any jutsu, but if she has any clan techniques like he does, he doesn't want to be taken by surprise. He doesn't know any genjutsu either, so that's out. 

“Taijutsu and weapons only.”

She nods solemnly and then surprises him by forming the seal of confrontation. He mirrors her on instinct, watching warily as he waits for her to drop it and start the fight. 

“Begin!”

He lunges forward, trying to surprise her and press his advantage, and she pulls her guard up into a stance he's never seen before, palms open and facing each other. 

She doesn't even block his blows, just touching his forearms with barely enough force to redirect them past her face and body. He almost stumbles into her, the first time, used to either forceful blocks he can use his momentum on, or dodges that he can use to spin into combinations. It's that she's using his own weight and momentum against him, he realizes as he disengages and jumps backward to gain space. She doesn't follow, just waits, and he knows that she didn't counter even once, and he's well aware that he'd been wide open at several points. 

This time, when he reengages, he focuses on integrating more kicks into his style, aiming to use enough force to necessitate her movement. She sways, her palms open, and when she redirects a roundhouse he simply follows through, placing both hands on the ground and planting the heel of his left foot into her exposed side with all the force he can muster. 

He feels-- and hears-- three of her ribs snap like twigs under his foot. 

He hears her choked gasp, and then, just as he's straightening, he hears her  _ laughing _ .

“Oh, well done, Uchiha. Let's step it up a little, then shall we?”

He barely gets his hands up before she's there in front of him, and then she throws her own strikes for the first time in the spar. 

It is immediately obvious that Sasuke has severely underestimated his opponent. He can hardly follow her hands with his eyes, even as the heel of one of them strikes him under the chin, flinging him backwards. The blow jars his skull and spine and he somersaults to disperse some of the force, landing and skidding backwards. He snatches at his kunai pouch and flings a handful of shuriken at her, too caught up in the spar to consider the possibly-lethal consequences. It doesn’t matter; she’s not even there anymore. Purely on instinct, he throws himself forward just in time to avoid a palm heel to the spine.

_ How did she get behind me? I didn’t even see her move! _

His mind switches gears from “sparring with equal” to “oh fuck oh fuck oh fucking fuck fighting Itachi” and he throws two kunai to buy himself time as he flings himself up against a tree in an attempt to force her to face him head on. He folds one kunai back against his forearm to conceal it until the opportune moment.

It never comes. One moment she’s off dodging kunai and the next she’s standing in front of him, her fist buried in his solar plexus. He chokes and topples forward, gasping, and she snags his own kunai from him on the way down to dangle the tip at the back of his neck.

“Yield?”

Sasuke grabs a tiny wheeze of air and squeaks,

“Yield!”

Immediately she reaches to help him up, offering the Seal of Reconciliation. He takes it, and feels a little flush of admiration as she straightens up and realigns her ribs with hardly a grimace. Her hands start glowing green and  _ is that medical chakra? _

He didn’t realize he asked the last part aloud until she grins and nods.

“Great to know. Not very good at it, yet, but makes for great spars.”

She lets out a huff of air and he decides now is a fine time for questions.

“What was that thing earlier, at the Academy? With the Inuzuka?”

She tilts her head back and rumbles in amusement. He’d heard it earlier, but hearing it in the silence of the clearing makes it even more obvious—that’s not a normal human vocal sound.

“In essence, Kiba was submitting.”

That explains precisely nothing. Sasuke gives her a Look. She grins at him, teeth abnormally sharp, and elaborates.

“Kiba is an Inuzuka. They’re a clan closely tied with dogs, right? So eventually, they ended up taking on some canine traits somewhere down the line. My clan is similar, except we bonded with wolves instead of dogs.”

He nods, and she continues,

“Part of that acquisition of traits is behavioral. The Inuzuka and I—and the Hatake, although you’ll not learn about them for a while—respond more to nonverbal cues and body language than most ninja, and they tend to use more canine signals and rely more on pack dynamics than standard humans. In essence, what I did in the courtyard declared myself an Alpha, and dared anyone to challenge me. I was preparing for a fight, in my…wolf’s subconscious, let’s call it. Kiba was submitting, and that ended up bringing me back out of the mindset enough for me to calm down.”

Sasuke can  _ feel _ his eyes widening. If even Kiba backed down rather than fight her…

“You should fight my brother. He’s really strong.”

And Sasuke  _ really _ wants to know how that fight would go. He’s like, 90% sure that Itachi would win, hands down, but…there’s a niggling sense of doubt creeping in there, as well. She had been incredibly fast. He knows the Sharingan can follow speed, but she might be faster even than that. Or if the Sharingan could keep up, but the rest of the body couldn’t.

The girl across from him chokes on nothing at all, and he has the unique privilege of seeing her completely shocked.

“You want me to fight  _ Itachi? _ Are you  _ crazy? _ ”

He blinks at her. He hadn’t realized she’d known who his brother was.

“But you’re strong, too.”

She laughs and it comes out a half-bark.

“Not strong like that, Uchiha. Not yet. I have a lot of chakra and pretty good control, and I’m working on the physical training and the absolute basics. But I know literally nothing you can’t find in the library’s Academy section and I can do nothing anyone couldn’t do with a lot of practice. With, like, one exception.”

Sasuke can’t help but start wondering what she could do with the resources he and Itachi have available, but when he looks up she’s already turned to walk away, one hand raised in casual farewell. His mouth opens and he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind.

“Train with me.”

She pauses and half-turns her head, peering through the dark ash of her hair.

“Kid, do you even know my name? Why do you want to train with me?”

He could have  _ smacked _ himself. Quickly, he drops into a shallow bow.

“My name is Uchiha Sasuke.”

She turns to face him fully, and inclines her head in a regal gesture.

“I am Ookami Tsukiko. It is a pleasure to meet you, Sasuke. Please, call me Kiko.”

Sasuke frowns.

“I don’t remember learning about an Ookami clan.”

Kiko grins at him, but he thinks it looks kind of sad instead.

“That’s because they’re long gone. I’m the last one.”

Sasuke…doesn’t quite know what to say to that, to be honest. In his silence, she leans forward and repeats her earlier question.

“Why do you want to train with me?”

“Because you’re strong.”

“Okay, let’s try this instead. Why do I want to train with you?”

Sasuke hesitates, but this is something he thinks he understands.

“I can teach you some D-rank jutsu and I don’t think you have any weapons training, either. In return, you can help me with the basics, and get a decent sparring partner out of it, too. And once I activate my Sharingan, I’ll be able to fight you better.”

She raises an eyebrow, but he doesn’t falter, just watches her, and in a moment she smiles, full and brilliant, and ruffles his hair the way he’d seen her do to Kiba and Naruto earlier. Remembering the gesture, and how the other two boys had responded, he ducks his head beneath her hand and is rewarded by a pleased rumble before she withdraws.

“You’re right. I don’t have anyone to practice with, and it would be nice to get in a little practice with weapons before the Academy really gets into it. I need to be top kunoichi, see, so I have to be the best at everything.”

Sasuke tilts his head back at her in a mirroring gesture.

“Why?”

She snarls wordlessly.

“I have things to do, and I need to be good enough that I can’t be overlooked or pushed off onto the Corps. To do this right, I need a jounin sensei, and to get that, I need to make it to one of the preset teams.”

Sasuke nods. That makes plenty of sense, and he doesn’t ask after her reasoning. She’ll tell him later, if she decides to trust him.

“Well, I have plenty of shuriken, and I know you still have that kunai you took off of me. Let’s start there.”

He thinks… he thinks this might be what it’s like to have a friend.

***

Kiko wanders out of the clearing with a double handful of kunai and her pockets stuffed with shuriken, her mind whirling. The second day in the Academy, and already she’s making...well, she thinks she can call Sasuke a friend. Oh, the other females in the Academy are going to _ kill _ her. Not that she particularly cares, since none of them matter except Ino and Sakura, and she'll make it clear enough that she's not interested in any of her boys. Not for a long time, if ever. 

In the meantime, though, she needs to ditch Itachi before she can find someplace to hole up for the night. Clearly he's decided that finding out more about his brother's newest friend preempts -stalking- walking his brother home safely. Kiko might not want to challenge Itachi in a fight, but when it comes to stealth and evasion… well, she's confident for a reason. She heads for the bustle of the evening market, blending into the crowd and smoothing her signature into a civilian blandness. By the time she emerges on the other side, Itachi has given up in vague bewilderment and a sensation that in anyone else might be frustration. Eventually, though, he'd written it off and headed back home. She's tracking him subconsciously, she realizes, just like she's doing with Sasuke and Naruto. She can't help it, though -- knowing what she knows about them, Tsukiko has accidentally adopted all of them in her mind. She has no doubt that she'll be doing the same to Kakashi as well, as soon as she's come into enough contact to register his signature with her odd chakra sense - blend. 

Darkness is settling as she treks back towards one of the experimental training grounds. This one is nowhere near as dangerous as the Forest of Death, but it's still vastly unused, like the majority of the wooded training grounds an overly - enthusiastic Hashirama had scattered throughout Konoha. She picked this one because it's no more than five chakra - assisted minutes from anywhere important in the village, and because of the quick, clean stream that bubbles through the center. She takes a quick bath and only remembers to bother with dinner because she'd forgone both breakfast and lunch, and Nashoba had gone to the trouble of hunting down two of the massive rabbits that run wild out here. She skins and roasts one with practiced motions, burying the other for later. Kiko is less picky this time around, partially because she doesn't eat enough to care about what she's eating when she does, and because this body is far less discerning than her last. The only reason she doesn't eat the meat raw is that she's gotten out of the habit since she came back from the wolf plains, and she doesn't want to deal with the several - day adjustment period while her system adapts. She banks the smokeless fire (one of the things the Academy texts had taught her) and settles in. Konoha is just crisp enough that she doesn't have to deal with mosquitos, and she thinks she'll be forever grateful for that during this… extended camping trip. 

See, the thing is, Tsukiko doesn't have a source of income that she knows of. There's a general fund for orphans, but she'd have to live at the orphanage for that, and there's quite simply no way in hell she's going back there. Until she's a genin, she thinks she'll just have to deal without one. It's a little frustrating, but she can read the texts at the library instead of buying Academy books, and the Academy themselves supplies the specially blunted kunai and shuriken the children are supposed to learn with. Kiko's only major hangup is paper, honestly. She's fine with scavenging for clothes -- the standard pants and dark shirt were incredibly easy to find, and she's not yet developed enough to need chest bindings. She just… can't get paper to practice with, except for the little sheets she stole from the library, meant for temporary notes. 

Kiko thinks over her options, considers her Henge mastery, and makes the obvious decision. 

***

There's a very pretty girl sitting across from him, grinning widely at the men surrounding her. 

“So, how much are you each betting?”

***

Kiko gets up very early the next morning and spends a solid hour getting herself a calligraphy set and some decent scrolls and paper, and a pack to replace the ratty one she'd snagged from a junk heap. She's headed back when she stops dead, stares for a while, then lets out a string of English curses and bolts for the door of the bookshop facing her like the entrance to paradise. Inside she controls her expression and wanders with reverence, examining each section. And… yeah, that's a section for shinobi. She wanders over and completely fails to control the delighted rumbling sound she's making. After checking her leftover winnings, she makes off with three scrolls on medical jutsu, two on beginner fuuinjutsu, and a supplementary taijutsu workout text. And an entire book on D- and C-ranked jutsu both elemental and otherwise. It's mostly meant as a reference text, but because it lists the hand signs and general effect of each jutsu, Kiko can simply reverse engineer each of them. She's positively  _ gleeful _ and it's the happiest she's been since she realized that she was literally going to be raised by wolves. It takes more willpower than she wants to admit to head to the Academy instead of immediately running off to teach herself some cool new jutsu, dammit. She’s no more immune to the lure of learning amazing techniques than any other shinobi, and these promise to expand her arsenal into a truly offensive capacity for the first time since she realized which world she’d ended up in for her second life. 

She makes it all the way to the Academy before she feels the streak of terror that shoots through one of the nearby signatures.

It’s about three feet from Naruto’s.

Tsukiko  _ moves. _

The thing about Naruto’s chakra signature is that it’s…chaotic. It’s always there, vibrant and fluctuating, and it makes it hard to read his emotions off of it, although she imagines that in a true emergency she’d be able to tell. She generally has to grit her teeth and wall off the waves of loneliness and pain she gets, because there’s absolutely nothing she can do for him at this point until she’s furthered their relationship at the Academy. Now, however, there’s anger mixed into his chakra—also a common occurrence—but it’s the signature standing off to the side that worries her, suffused with absolute terror.

She bursts through the edge of the forest on the side of the Academy and doesn’t even pause to see what’s going on before she’s standing at Naruto’s back, facing off against whoever he’s facing off against, a long snarl curling through her chest. It’s an adult ninja, which she should have guessed from the closely guarded chakra signature, but what she wasn’t expecting was the tiny, tiny Hinata the Hyuuga has shoved behind him.

Kiko releases the edge of killing intent she’d pulled up with a long sigh and relaxes enough to glower over Naruto’s shoulder at the Hyuuga branch member. Yeah, they’re all oppressed and basically slaves, and she feels sorry for them, but that doesn’t give them the right to oppress any one of her pack in turn.  _ Especially _ not Naruto, who deals with far too much of that shit anyway. She curls her lip at the Hyuuga’s blank-faced, hard expression, then smiles at Hinata.

“What’s going on here, exactly?”

Naruto jumps and spins, jerking away from her before realizing who it is and letting out an embarrassed laugh.

“Eh, I was tryin’ to shoo off some bullies for her an’ then this guy came up and grabbed her. ‘s okay, I don’t mind.”

He rubs at the back of his head, smiling with his eyes closed, and even if Tsukiko couldn’t feel his pain-tinged chakra she wouldn’t have been fooled in the slightest. She reaches out and rubs his head again in a repeat of yesterday, and he quiets underneath her hand.

“Thank you, Naruto. You did very well, indeed.”

He beams at her, cautious happiness fluttering through his chakra, and she turns to the branch member with a raised eyebrow.

“Well? I’m sure you were here to thank him for saving the Heiress, weren’t you?”

Kiko lets loose a tiny spike of highly targeted killing intent and the Hyuuga jerks backwards, almost activates his Byakugan on reflex. She can feel his chakra, and she’s pretty sure she could take him if she needed to, but she’d rather not set herself against the entire Hyuuga clan just yet. Before the situation can come to a head, though, tiny Hinata surprises all three of them by pushing forward and dropping into a deep bow on her own, determination lacing through her words and chakra.

“Thank you, Naruto-san, for saving me from the bullies.”

Her face is bright red, but she doesn’t stutter once, and Kiko feels a surge of protective pride washing over her.

_ Oh, not another one. _ Why does she keep trying to adopt these adorable little shits? She’s  _ technically _ as much of a six-year-old as the rest of them. And yet, here she is tagging them in her head to keep track of and protect.

Just then the bell rings, and Naruto whips around and races for the building, yelling apologies as he goes. Kiko gives the Hyuuga branch member one last unimpressed look before inclining her head towards Hinata.

“Hyuuga-san, would you care to walk with me?”

Kiko has talked about a thousand times more than she felt like, today, but for this brave little soul she can socialize a bit more. Hinata squeaks, but nods, and they fall in together as they head to class. Kiko still seats herself in the farthest back corner, but today, unlike the previous two days, Kiba slides in next to her. She gives him a  _ look _ and he hunkers down defiantly.

“Look, I know what you did yesterday. I know how this works. At least let me guard you, yeah?”

Kiko is absolutely  _ touched _ and expresses it with a pleased rumble and what’s quickly becoming her signature hair-ruffle. He straightens up, looking far too happy with himself, and takes to his new self-appointed duties by glaring ferociously at anyone who comes too close. Honestly, it’s very appreciated, and Kiko promptly slumps into her corner and shuts down a little, grateful to not have to interact with any more people.

There are still a few people who surprise her throughout the day. Sasuke nods to her when he comes in, a quiet gesture of acknowledgement that reinforces yesterday’s submission, and she knows he can’t understand the full impact of his behavior on her just yet but damned if she lets anything touch him now. He’s  _ hers. _ Naruto surprises her by quieting when she snaps her teeth at him in agitation at the constant sound, ducking his head in apology and maintaining an appropriate volume for the rest of class—she’s  _ got _ to figure out some way to reward such excellent behavior.

Hinata watches her. So does Sakura, who apparently noticed more of yesterday than she let on. Kiko never catches Shikamaru looking, but despite his napping demeanor she can feel the intent, focused edge to his chakra where it’s zeroed in on her. The teacher has clearly picked up on the odd class dynamic as well; it’s only the third day, but they’re clearly not behaving like your average bunch of six-year-olds. Ikari-sensei doesn’t say anything, but she can feel him focusing in on her, as well, since she’s suddenly the absolute center of the focus of half the classroom. With Kiba flanking her, though, she makes it to break without snapping, although she can feel the tension crawling through her shoulders and hips and chakra. If she doesn’t get herself under control, she’s going to set off half the jounin within regular sensing range with her own body’s pointless danger signals.

She folds herself into a corner to meditate during break, dismissing Kiba with a quiet nod towards the rest of the playing children. He runs off, but she can still tell that he’s keeping a little bit of himself focused on her, the same way Sasuke is. It’s…flattering, and it’s how the pack generally reacts to the alpha, in her experience with the wolf clan, but these are humans, and even if the Inuzuka is no stranger to pack dynamics, she’d think the rest of them are. But Sasuke, even if he’s not on his brother’s level, is still an Uchiha, and apparently last night was all he needed to know about it. He’s mimicking Kiba’s general body language and awareness toward her with truly impressive skill, and it’s setting her at an ease she hasn’t felt in ages.

Or at least, she would be at ease, if her skin weren’t crawling with a panicky need to  _ run _ ,  _ hide, fight _ . She’s grappling with her chakra, trying to bring it under control, and her nature sense is slipping away from her fingertips as she tries to reach for its calming effects as well. Kiba, she knows, can probably feel her anxiety, and she’s doing her best to keep herself calm, but at this rate…

Once more, though, Naruto surprises her. He settles across from her in a passable attempt at seiza and hums quietly in his throat. It’s not canine, not quite, but it’s clearly a calming noise—a thoroughly omega attempt to diffuse tension and settle the rest of the pack down. He even tries to be discrete, as he quietly asks,

“Hey,‘re you feelin’ ok?”

He’s so little, so innocent and nonthreatening despite what he carries, that she can’t help but smile genuinely at him, even if it feels a little strained. Carefully, so as not to startle him, she pulls him a little closer, ignoring his noise of surprise, and repositions them so that he’s sitting next to her, shoulders pressed together in a grounding position. Kiko takes a deep breath, scenting the unique blend of ramen and pain and loneliness and a little bit of fox that is Naruto.

“No, I’m not right now, but I will be. It’s all right.”

Honesty is important for building pack bonds, and despite the hilarity of the statement and the sentiment behind it, she does want to be as open with them as she can, even if that can’t include the bigger stuff just yet.

He frowns at her, looking worried.

“D’ya wanna tell me? I can keep a secret, I promise!”

She lets out the breath.

“I…it’s hard to explain. Sometimes, when I’m around people, even if it’s people I like, it can just be…too much. It makes me feel kind of scared, like I woke up from a nightmare and still feel something chasing me.”

Naruto clearly knows this feeling. His chakra tints rose-gold empathetic and he leans into her some more, at least until something occurs to him. He flails upright and twists to face her, his voice creeping back into the louder registers he usually uses.

“Heyy! Wait a minute! I don’t even know your name!”

Kiko giggles, which she suspects was the intention, and pulls his head back down to tangle her fingers in it. It’s an excuse for her to relieve a little bit of her touch starvation, and probably his as well. He relaxes back against her side as she introduces herself.

“My name is Ookami Tsukiko. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

It rings clearly across the courtyard, and she almost laughs again when Kiba trips over himself, clearly chastising himself for not even getting the name of his new Alpha. A chorus of “pleased to meet you” echoes back at her, and she inclines her head to the group at large.

Sasuke and Kiba end up wandering over again at some point, and with the three of them surrounding her protectively Kiko manages to relax enough to mentally brace herself for the rest of the day.

She has known these little shits for approximately a day and a half and already they have this effect on her.

…she’s so doomed.


	3. Chapter 3

Unfortunately for everyone involved, the afternoon section of classes involves their first taijutsu lessons, which happen to be taught nothing whatsoever like how her martial art was taught, in her old world. Instead of having them practice each individual motion on their own, they’re paired up immediately and told to come forward and spar when their names are called. Kiko can only assume that the teacher will then give instruction to each child based on their level, but this is…heavily geared toward favoring clan children who already have some idea what they’re doing.

Ah, well.

She’s paired up with Ino, and the girl has an interesting look on her face as the two face off and form the Seal of Confrontation. From what Tsukiko can tell, Ino’s trying to decide whether or not it’s worth  _ really _ trying to take her down.

Kiko has no intention of giving her that chance. She likes Ino, sort of, even with the blonde’s overwhelming personality, but she’s too on edge today to enjoy anything, and she just wants this over with. The moment Ikari-sensei calls to begin, Kiko strikes like a snake, taking Ino’s legs out with a sweep and pinning the girl’s hands with her knees. It’s unnecessary, but she also throws a palm strike that she halts about an inch away from Ino’s shocked face, just because she wants this done fast and she needs to clearly indicate that she’s better than  _ anyone _ else, boys or girls. She’s not going to get that from someone who’s reluctant to even fight her.

Shino and Sasuke give the class a textbook spar—it’s beautiful, really, and they’re both using basic forms but they’re  _ good _ with them—and Kiba and Naruto immediately follow that with their own demonstration of…well, what  _ not _ to do. It looks more like a brawl or bar fight than anything, and they roll across the ground getting filthy until the instructor calls a halt to it. There’s no clear winner in either case.

The look of confusion on Sasuke’s little face is absolutely priceless. Kiko can almost hear him wondering what she sees in them. She catches his eye across the grounds and signs,  _ We can teach them,  _ at him. He furrows his brow, clearly translating the message sign by sign, and then raises his hand and slowly signs,  _ Why, _ at her. She grins and shakes her head at him.  _ Later.  _

***

Inuzuka Tsume has had a blissful, two - day vacation after finally shipping her younger pup off to the Academy. The peace lasts until Kiba tumbles into the compound on the second day, yapping about a new Alpha who’d declared themselves at the Academy. Tsume’s surprised, but not at the news itself, per se. Her own Academy days had been useful for working out the pecking order for the rest of their careers. What surprises her is the way Kiba’s reacting. He’s not angry, not challenging. It’s as if he’s accepted their claim as valid, and that… that is interesting. 

And then she hears how  _ literal _ the declaration had been, and her mind goes spinning off onto possibilities. 

There aren’t any other Inuzuka Kiba’s age. She’s the clan Alpha, and only she and her chosen mate have breeding rights at any given point. Tsume is also 100% sure that it’s  _ not _ a Hatake, which is the only other canid clan in the entirety of the Land of Fire--and she knows, because the Ookami clan had driven all the rest out, fiercely territorial and protective, before they’d died out themselves and left their former pack-allies to continue on alone as best they could.

A civilian wouldn’t have the canine traits--the teeth, the hair, the secondary vocal chords--even if they were a budding dog or wolf summoner. Very simply, she needs to meet this new Alpha, even if it’s just to rough them up a little and remind them who’s the  _ true _ Alpha among the dog-nin of Konoha. The last Hatake didn’t count; his old pack was long dead and had taken him with them, leaving him a lone wolf. He just...hadn’t quite stopped moving yet. When Tsume asks Kiba what this new Alpha’s name was, though, he just shrugs and tells her that no words had actually been exchanged. 

This is why she’s standing at the Academy gates as the bell rings to signal the end of the third day. 

Children tumble out and past her, parting around Tsume’s intimidating figure as she waits for her son. To her surprise, Kiba’s not one of the first out. Instead, he comes out, talking animatedly to a blonde brat she recognizes as the Jinchuuriki, Minato’s kid--she’s not fucking stupid, she can compare scents perfectly fine, thank you--both of them flanking a diminutive girl with long, wild, dark-ash hair of a shade she hasn’t seen in a solid fifteen years. Even more interesting, though, is the Uchiha brat trailing her like a quiet shadow. Somehow, this little bitch has managed to get three of the whelps she would have put  _ money _ on to cause trouble fighting for dominance to follow her lead instead, and with apparently no effort, at that. 

_ Fascinating. _

Then the chit looks up and meets her gaze directly, and Tsume is pinned in place by slanted, intense golden eyes. The girl heads over to her immediately, flanked by her three pack members, one of whom is apparently  _ Tsume’s own son _ , and if that’s not a hell of a statement Tsume doesn’t know what is. The girl tilts her head in a shallow nod, from one clan head to another.

“Inuzuka-dono.”

Tsume raises an eyebrow.

“None of that, brat. Just call me Tsume. And who’re you?”

The very edge of the girl’s lip twitches, but it feels like amusement rather than annoyance or challenge.

“Ookami Tsukiko, Tsume-dono. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

Tsume  _ fucking _ knew it.

“You’ve got your mother’s eyes, brat.”

Tsukiko’s gaze snaps to Tsume’s, intense and breathtaking.

“You knew my mother?”

Tsume barks a rough laugh.

“Knew her? Hell, I was her retainer for most of my life. At least until she fell in love with that Kiri missing-nin and wandered off with him to see the world.”

Kiko has no idea how to handle this revelation. It’s been a long day, she wants to go curl up in Nash’s side and pretend the world doesn’t exist for a while, and she  _ doesn’t _ want to be here, having a conversation she isn’t ready for with a woman she’s also not ready for.

“I… I never knew my parents. Thank you for telling me.” She inclines her head, hoping Tsume is willing to leave it at that for now.

Tsume, naturally, bulldozes on without a moment’s pause.

“Yeah, and now here I turn around and her brat is stealing my pup for her pack. How about that?”

Kiko goes from uncomfortably tense to utterly relaxed in a heartbeat. She drops her shoulders and relaxes her stance, tilting her head languidly to the side and eyeing Tsume up and down with a look that’s barely shy of disdainful. That was as much of a challenge as she’s ever heard, and her wolf sat up and took notice. The looseness that overtakes her is in fact her body’s preparation for a fight, and as odd as that might look on a six-year-old, she knows it’s effective. She can feel Sasuke and Naruto moving up to cover her flanks, and Kiba has removed himself from the standoff as much as he possibly can without actually leaving the vicinity. It reassures her, to have her pack with her, even facing off against a tojuko as intimidating as this one. There’s an amused little bite in her tone as she tosses back,

“Yes, I hear not all pups stay with the pack. Must hurt to have him wandering off so soon, hm?”

Tsume eyes her for a long moment, locking eyes in something just short of a threat display, and then when Kiko refuses to back down she tosses her head back and  _ howls  _ with laughter.

“I like you, Ookami. You’ve got your mother’s spunk. Take care of my brat, you hear?”

Tsukiko has no idea what just happened, but there’s only one answer to a question like that about a member of her pack. There’s a hint of a growl in her deadly serious reply.

“With my life.”

Tsume tosses her a wink and walks off, calling back to Kiba,

“Now you don’t stay out too late, you hear? Just cause you got yourself a new Alpha don’t mean I ain’t still your mother, now.”

Tsukiko stares after her until even her chakra signature is fading, then slumps forward with a gasp. 

“What the  _ hell.” _

Kiba is standing awkwardly, gaze flicking between her and the direction his mother had gone. Naruto is glaring after Tsume as if angry she'd threatened Kiko, and Sasuke raises an eyebrow at her, his little eyes wider than usual. It's the Uchiha equivalent of pointing and yelling in shock. 

Laughter bubbles up in her chest, vaguely hysterical. Today's not her best mental health day, and here she's faced down a Hyuuga and an Inuzuka. The Inuzuka clan head, no less. A snicker escapes her, and then a full-throated laugh, and then she’s gasping for air, doubled over and choking on her own hysteria. 

There are hands on her and she twists away, falling forward to skin her palms against the ground. Her chakra is fizzing at her, stinging at her in tiny, burning pinpricks, and the world is too bright and too loud and  _ too much _ and she can hear voices pushing at her but she needs to be away from here and she hasn’t had much practice yet but she knows the basics and she reaches out with her chakra and  _ stretches _ and…

The shunshin lands her next to Nashoba, where Kiko immediately crumples to the ground and has the worst panic attack she’s had since she died. When she finally regains her breath, her face buried in Nash’s coarse, thick coat, she gasps out, 

“Remind me to never do that again.”

Nash nuzzles at her, the top of her head butting against Kiko’s chin and covering her throat.

“Do what?”

Tsukiko shakes her head and summons up a shaky smile.

“Challenge idiots on a day I’m not ready to handle confrontation. Or people at all, actually.”

Nash gives a low whine and pushes a little harder.

“Are you sure you don’t want me with you at the Academy? I know it’s more conspicuous, but I’d rather be there to back you up if you need me than otherwise.”

It’s tempting, it’s  _ so _ tempting, but Kiko can’t afford to not have as many aces up her sleeve as she can at this point. It’s bad enough that her existence is now known to more than an uncaring, civilian-background Academy teacher. Tsume is one of the Clan heads, and she doesn’t doubt that the rest of them will know soon enough. 

Nash, ever levelheaded, listens to Kiko’s recount of her day and points out calmly that Tsume wasn’t as interested in politicking as the Ino-Shika-Chou trio, or the Hyuuga and Uchiha, so she might not even bother using the re-emergence of a nearly-dead clan in the Council games. And the Hyuuga was a branch member, even if he had been guarding little Hinata, and since the confrontation hadn’t involved the clan heiress, there was no need to report or even do anything about it.The only item of interest in the entire thing would be that someone felt the need to defend the “demon brat,” and that could probably be marked down to Kiko’s now-demonstrated dislike of bullies. 

They finish talking things through and Kiko feels  _ much _ better--to the point that she’s almost ready to go track down her boys and apologize for disappearing on them like that. Except maybe she’ll do that tomorrow, since Sasuke is already inside the compound with Itachi and two others who she assumes are Fugaku and Mikoto, Kiba is home, and Naruto is...nevermind. She doesn’t want to know what he’s up to but she assumes he’s planning a prank by the glee in his signature and the exasperation that hovers around the two blank holes that follow him when he’s not at the Academy. 

She needs to make a list. 

In the fading light, she digs out one of the tiniest blank scrolls she’d picked up and her ink brush. Might as well get some calligraphy practice as well. It comes out not too badly, and the final list of items goes something like this:

  1. Academy
    1. Bring in the rest of the Rookie 9.
    2. Propagate personality theory.
    3. Get closer to Naruto and Sasuke.
    4. Meet Iruka.
    5. Take top kunoichi spot. 
    6. Send Sakura down the med-nin path.
    7. Fuck up Mizuki
    8. Graduate with Sasuke and Naruto for a front-line team.
  2. Other
    1. Meet Kakashi.
    2. Meet Itachi.
    3. Meet Orochimaru.
    4. Meet Fugaku/Mikoto.
    5. Get close to Uchiha clan.
    6. Overhear Danzo and “Madara.”
    7. Keep Shisui the fuck away from Danzo.
    8. Read the rest of the library.
    9. Learn Kage Bunshin.
    10. Train skills to be instinctive.



  
  


It’s not nearly as complete as she would like it to be, but she can make do with this for the next six years. Her main goal for this time period, after all, doesn’t really need to be written down--it echoes in her head every time she sees a dark, spiky head wearing a white-and-red crest. 

 

_ Prevent the Massacre. _

 

It’s kind of her, yes, but it’s also very practical. She needs Itachi on her side, and Danzo neutralized, and this is the best way she can think of to accomplish both goals at once. Additionally, a stronger Konoha is never bad, and drawing the Uchiha and the village closer together will be a benefit to both parties. While she knows Tobi won’t stop causing trouble, and Zetsu is of course plotting his obscure endgame, Danzo at least can be checked here.

 

She rolls up the scroll and tucks it away into her waistband, exhaustion overcoming her as it often does after panic attacks. With any amount of luck, she’ll at least get a peaceful night’s sleep. Nash curls into her side and Kiko flattens herself along the wolf’s spine, humming quietly to herself. Tomorrow, she can apologize to her pack, and she can teach herself some of the jutsu she found in her reference material. With that happy thought thrumming through her mind, she drifts off, and does not wake until morning. 

 

When Kiko wakes, it’s not quite dawn, but she’s fully rested--this body tends to require less sleep than her other one, and she finds only a few hours a night sufficient rest. It’s not light enough yet to read, so she runs herself through her stretches and a brief, high-intensity workout before settling into a meditative state and slipping into Sage mode, spreading her senses as far as they will go. Each of her little pack stands out in her mind, a bright beacon. The Rookie Nine--the habit of referring to them as such has stuck, regardless of events that have yet to happen at all--are all asleep, but Itachi is up and moving already, or perhaps still, and with a contingent of flares that make her breath catch. Kakashi is there, she  _ knows _ it, and his signature is immediately tagged and added to her “collection” in her head, sharp and crackling and edged with loneliness and pain that would put even Naruto to shame. The other signatures must be Yugao and Yamato--or is it Tenzo at this point, or even still Kinoe? Orochimaru hasn’t disappeared yet, so...Kinoe, likely. His signature is flatly muted, a Root hallmark, but carries a life to it that must come from his unique Wood nature. Kiko hardly thinks before “marking” him too. This must be Ro, the ANBU squad that Kakashi headed until the Sandaime kicked him off to take genin teams. Orochimaru is off on his own, which is...well, depressing, but at least he’s not killing anyone or being harassed by Danzo again. She hasn’t seen much of him, lately, and she suspects they’re reaching the critical tipping point at which everything begins to slide downhill. Kiko knows he’s been doing vaguely immoral experiments for Root for years, at this point, but the researcher in her doesn’t care that much about morals, anyway, and she has  _ so many questions. _

 

By the time she drifts out of Sage mode, Nash has stirred and wandered off to hunt her own food, and the sun has risen enough for her to flip through the low-ranked jutsu reference text. There are a great deal of them in there, regardless of elemental alignment or classification, and Kiko settles in to teach herself the first D-rank in the list. It will take a great deal of time and effort until these, like the E-ranks, can be done without handsigns and instinctively, but at this point, she has nothing to do but learn and connect with people, and she has  _ always _ loved to learn.

 

She takes the fuuinjutsu and medical scrolls with her to class, if only because there is  _ always _ downtime, and the materials they’re covering in class were old news to her by her second day in the library. They’re not expected to really talk in class--honestly, Shikamaru sleeps, mostly, and Sasuke stares out the window, although at least now she realizes that, as clan children, it’s because they already know all this, not because they’re uninterested in learning--so she secretes herself in her corner and lets Kiba watch for her while she devours ever-more knowledge. These fuuinjutsu texts, while still meant for beginners to the art of sealing, are closer to her reading level than the Academy texts, and she digs in with relish. It’s an interesting combination of art and practicality, and she spares a moment to be grateful she already knows her radicals--she’d made passing study of them in her last lifetime, but reading, even in Japanese, comes to her on a level so instinctive she finds it hard to remember that she’d had to teach herself. One of the upsides to having a child’s sponge of a mind and the knowledge and drive of an adult, she supposes, was that the transition from English to Japanese had been very nearly subconscious, and reading had fallen into place with hardly any effort from her two-year-old self. The radicals that make up the building blocks of both writing and sealing, here, are therefore well-known already. 

 

The text starts by reviewing the history of fuuinjutsu, briefly mentions the Uzumakis, skims through the radicals and the new way they’d be put together, and then begins to break down common seals for inspection. And, okay, it’s not any  _ more _ magical than pushing chakra to your hands and having fire spew forth, but somehow the ability to code an explosion on paper makes the entire thing much more entertaining. The trick is the ink, actually, which has to be infused with chakra to make the desired seal anything more than pretty words on paper. There were a few ways to do it; the more powerful seals needed blood mixed with ink, or sometimes even straight blood  _ as _ ink, but your standard tags could be made with a specially designed ink that absorbed chakra upon contact with a source, and then used that energy to bring into effect the desired result. There were variations that could be changed--by changing the radicals--such as the length of time before detonation and the amount of chakra used, the size of the explosion, the color and heat and noise.

 

After deconstructing several of the most common seals, the text addressed the different classes of seals--barrier seals, exploding seals, storage seals--and so on. Unfortunately, except by being able to “read” a seal, or simply recognize a deviation from a common usage, there was no real way to tell what a seal did simply based off of looking at it. 

  
  


Kiko wasn’t a note-taker, but her fingers were itching for a bit of ink and paper. Unfortunately, she couldn’t experiment in-class, but she could practice her designs until they came instinctively, and she set to work with a will. When the bell rings for lunch, she gathers up her notes under Kiba’s curious gaze. She explains her interest in sealing while they head out, and Sasuke gives her a long look when he hears what they're discussing. She spends most of that break teaching her three cubs the absolute basics as she'd just learned. It's somewhat sidetracked by a discussion of radicals and the horrifying but unsurprising realization that Naruto has little to no reading ability whatsoever. And, well, she imagines that no one would have taken the time to teach him, but it still makes her...a bit angry. Sasuke looks a bit taken aback by the silent vehemence of her reaction, and she reminds herself that he can probably sense the fury in her chakra signature. Kiba looks vaguely uncomfortable, and Naruto grins at her, bright and false and covering a world of pain. She swallows her rage and smiles back at him. 

 

“I can teach you, if you want to stay after school for a little while,” she offers. Her own training can wait for a while. 

 

Naruto stares at her like she's just offered him the world instead of extra work, and then ducks his head beneath her hand when she ruffles his hair. 

 

In the end, all three of her boys stay after class, and she works with Naruto while Sasuke and Kiba work on forms. Naruto is a surprisingly dedicated learner, and he picks up things with a rapidity that surprises her. 

**Author's Note:**

> I was never gonna post this I swear.


End file.
